The Girl Who Dreamt of Dolphins (21 page)

‘
You’re up early’ said Dad, emerging from his bedroom already
dressed in his suit.

‘
Yeah’ replied Lucy, trying not to get drawn into
conversation.

‘
Half term next week’ he continued, ‘Are you looking forward to
it?’ he asked.

‘
Oh yes’, she assured him.

‘
I suppose you’ll be sleeping in and hanging out with your
friends. I spoke to Amy’s Mum and she says you can spend Monday and
Tuesday with Amy at their house, then you’ve got two days at the
Stables riding and looking after the ponies and then, well, maybe
I’ll be able to take the day off on Friday. I’m not promising
anything though.’

Lucy knew all this already. Normally hanging out with Amy and
going to the stables would have been great, but she had other
plans.

Lucy washed her face and cleaned her teeth before coming down
to breakfast. She got her cereals and sat down at the kitchen
table. Dad joined her, coffee in hand.

‘
So what time do you come out of school today then Luce?’ Dad
asked. Lucy knew that he was hoping that it wouldn’t be three pm
like the last time end of term and she didn’t disappoint
him.

‘
Oh, you know I’ve got French club after school and so I won’t
be out till four thirty.’ Lucy was banking on already having got to
Bethany’s house at Merwater by that time so that Bethany could call
him on his mobile and break the news. The longer it took before Dad
realised what she was up to the better. She was still worried that
Dad would simply get in his car and drive down the same night to
drag her back home again. ‘No way josé’ Lucy muttered to herself.
She’d fight every step of the way if he tried that.

‘
I’ll get a DVD for tonight, what do you fancy seeing?’ Dad
asked.

‘
Oh I don’t know, you choose’ said Lucy noncommittally, digging
into her cereals with her spoon and knowing that she wouldn’t be
there to watch it anyway.

Lucy looked at her father curiously as she ate. He seemed
tired and crumpled, even though he’d just got up, with bags under
his eyes and grey round the temples that hadn’t been there before
they’d lost Mum. Half of her felt sorry for him. The other half
felt defiant and angry. He just made ridiculous and
incomprehensible rules to stop her doing this, that and the other,
but didn’t seem to want to be there for her when he could. The last
time he’d suggested watching a DVD together, he’d started sending
text messages half way through and then he’d disappeared upstairs
to send an urgent email. Sometimes she missed Mum with a yearning
that gnawed away at her heart. Tonight though, she thought, she’d
be at Bethany’s house and she’d be happy there.

Dad switched the radio on and they listened absently to the
morning news whilst Dad busied himself for work. Because Lucy had
got up early she had a little more time before she was supposed to
leave, as Dad believed, for school. Although she knew that she
would only be away a week or so, she looked around the familiar
kitchen with new eyes. Everything looked the same, but ever so
slightly different from normal, as though the light had been turned
up too bright and had bleached out some colour. She drained her
glass of orange juice.

‘
Better get going Luce’ said Dad, standing in front of her,
coat on, ready to set off. ‘Don’t forget your raincoat, the weather
forecast said it’s going to chuck it down later. Something about a
storm coming in from the West.’ Lucy pulled on her raincoat, took
her school bag and went outside. Dad banged the door closed behind
her. He opened the car door.

‘
See you later Luce’ called Dad. Lucy turned to look at
him.

‘
Dad?’ she said uncertainly, but he had already clunked the car
door closed behind him. The engine burst into life and he backed
down the drive. He gave her a brief wave, before turning the car
and driving off. Lucy took a deep breath and walked up the road to
Amy’s house.

Amy was looking out of her bedroom window in expectation and
ran down quickly appearing at the front door a moment later,
yelling her goodbyes to her Mum as she ran down the front path to
her friend.

‘
Hey Lucy, you ready?’ Lucy smiled.

‘
Sure am’ she replied.

‘
Come round to the back’ Amy beckoned her and, glancing back to
the front door to make sure Amy’s Mum wasn’t watching, they slipped
round the side of the house to the garage. Amy lifted up the garage
door. Inside, propped against the garage wall, was Amy’s backpack.
Lucy had been smuggling her clothes for the week ahead to Amy in
her school bag during the last few days. She had her toothbrush,
toothpaste and lip salve in her school bag now and quickly
transferred them into her backpack.

‘
You sure you still want to do this?’ Amy asked. ‘It’s not too
late to change your mind you know.’

‘
Course I’m sure’ replied Lucy, though she didn’t feel it
inside.

‘
How about you? You won’t get into trouble?’

‘
No, it’s ok’ Amy assured her. ‘I’ve faked my Mum’s note about
my dentist appointment. I’ll get back in to school for mid-morning
break. No one will ever know. I’ll be fine.’

Lucy shouldered the backpack and Amy pulled the garage door
back down. They took the long way round to avoid walking in front
of Amy’s house and any of their friends who they might bump into on
their way into school. It was a fair walk into the centre of town.
They were soon on the main road with the trucks and rush hour
traffic streaming passed them as they walked.

‘
So you’ve got all the money you need?

‘
Check.’

‘
You know the train times?’

‘
Check.’

‘
You’ve got your Aunt’s address?’

‘
Absolutely.’

‘
You’ve got my number in case of any problems?’

‘
Err, no, I forgot. You can write it down for me before I go,
can’t you?

‘
Sure thing’ said Amy.

The sky was grey. It started drizzling. Suddenly it seemed
like a really long walk into town. The two girls became aware that
they were the only school children amongst the throng of people in
business clothes making their way to work. They felt small and out
of their depth.

They turned into Station Road, with its offices on each side
and made their way to the end where the train station was. The last
time she had been there, she realised, was years ago when she and
Mum had met Granny and Granddad off the train. She’d been much
smaller then and the station had seemed enormous to her then, with
a high arched roof like a concrete barn and with the immense noise
and bustle of people coming and going all the time. Lucy had
imagined a big, echoing and intimidating building, but as they drew
near, she realised that it wasn’t half as large as she remembered
it. The old building looked a little shabby and depressed pigeons
perched in the portico above the entrance.

‘
Whatever else we do’ Lucy said under her breath to Amy as they
approached, ‘we’ve just got to look confident, like we do this
every day and know exactly what we’re doing.’

‘
Let’s hope no one realises that we don’t then’ replied Amy
under her breath. They walked in through the entrance to the
station. There was a small news kiosk in the foyer, the ticket
window and the automated ticket machines in the corner. It was
moderately busy, but not as much as Lucy had thought. They went and
stood in the queue for the ticket machine.

‘
Why not just buy your ticket from the lady at the ticket
window?’ asked Amy.

‘
She might ask awkward questions’ Lucy whispered back as they
waited for the machine. The man in front stuffed coins into the
slot and Lucy peered anxiously over his shoulder, trying to figure
out how it worked.

‘
I think it can take bank notes can’t it?’ she asked Amy,
nervously fingering the twenty pound note and two tens in her
pocket. Amy furrowed her brow.

‘
Not sure really’ she replied. ‘It can’t be that hard. I’m sure
you’ll figure it out.’ The man banged the machine and something
dropped out of the slot at the bottom. He scooped up the change and
walked off, muttering to himself under his breath.

‘
Do you think it’s working at all?’ Lucy asked as they walked
up to the machine. She selected Single ticket, standard class and
then scrolled down through the destinations starting with ‘t’ until
she got to Truro. Merwater didn’t have a train station and she’d
have to take a bus or something when she got to Truro. She’d figure
that out later. At the moment she was just worried about buying a
ticket. The price came up. It was forty three pounds for a one-way
ticket. That didn’t leave her with much afterwards, but Amy was
lending her nine pounds in coins from her own savings and that
would help her for the next leg of her journey.

She fed in the bank notes and they went into the machine
swiftly with a little whirring noise. Then she started to put in
three pound coins, but all they did was rattle down into the change
return tray at the bottom. The screen blinked at her and said that
she still had three pounds to pay. Try as she might, the machine
would not take the change and she became increasingly aware of a
small queue of people building up behind her. Desperately she
turned and caught the eye of the lady waiting next in
line.

‘
It won’t take my coins’ she said. ‘You don’t know how to make
it work do you?’

‘
No idea dear’ replied the lady sympathetically. ‘I always use
a credit card personally.’

‘
I don’t have one those’ replied Lucy, embarrassed. She turned
back to the machine and gave it a little bang on the
side.

‘
You better press cancel’ said Amy, studying the machine next
to her. ‘It’s obviously not going to work.’ Lucy was worried the
machine wasn’t going to give her bank notes back. Instead forty
pound coins rattled noisily into the tray below. Lucy scooped them
up guiltily and stuffed them into her pockets.

‘
That’s just great!’ she exclaimed. ‘Now what?’

‘
You’ll just have to buy your ticket from the lady at the
window’ replied Amy.

‘
Ok then, here goes.’ Amy retreated to a safe distance, keeping
an eye on Lucy at the window. If Lucy fluttered her hand at her
side, Amy knew that would be an emergency signal to come over.
She’d pretend she was Lucy’s sister and that their Mum was outside
and that Lucy had to come with her.

Lucy went up to the ticket window. She had to queue again and
it was almost five minutes before she was able to go up. She
glanced at her window nervously. Her train would be pulling in at
nine twenty one and time was getting short. It was already five
past nine according to the station clock. She gave the lady on the
other side of the window what she hoped was a winning
smile.

‘
Ticket to Truro please.’

‘
Coming back?’ asked the lady pleasantly.

‘
Err, no’ stuttered Lucy, feeling suddenly guilty. ‘I’m going
to visit my Aunt in Cornwall’ she continued, truthfully enough and
she’ll be buying my return ticket.’ The lady eyed her suspiciously
through the glass. They had training on dealing with runaways,
though runaways didn’t usually look smart as Lucy did and they
normally wanted to go to big towns like London or
Manchester.

‘
Isn’t it a school day?’ the lady asked, looking at her school
uniform.

‘
Yes, but I’ve got permission from the school. Would you like
to see the letter?’ she lied, making to open her bag. She had no
idea if the school gave out letters like that, but it sounded
plausible. The lady thought so too. She still didn’t look happy
though.

‘
You’ll be an unaccompanied minor then. Minors are not allowed
to travel that distance unaccompanied under the age of fourteen.’
Lucy had an idea that wasn’t true, but was in no position to
argue.

‘
Well I turned fourteen last Tuesday’ Lucy replied quickly,
with another big fib.

‘
And I don’t suppose you can prove that can you?’ asked the
lady with a raised eye-brow. Lucy started to feel panicky. Of
course she couldn’t prove it. She’d only just turned twelve. She
started to flutter her hand at her side, so that Amy could come and
rescue her. But there was a crowd of people passing just then and
Amy couldn’t see from the position where she was standing by the
entrance. All she could see was Lucy’s head and shoulders. With no
rescue coming, Lucy thought desperately. She pulled out a folded
piece of paper with Bethany’s number from her pocket.

‘
I’ve got my Aunt’s number on this piece of paper. Call her if
you don’t believe me.’ The lady eyed the piece of paper.

‘
Why aren’t your Mum or Dad in here with you to see you
off?’

‘
My Dad’s outside trying to park the car. He says it’s a
nightmare finding a parking space round here.’ Her Dad had said
that often enough when they went into the town centre. ‘He’ll be in
in a minute I expect. He told me I have to learn to do things by
myself.’ Lucy was amazed at how easily she managed to
lie.

‘
Go on then’ the lady said resignedly. ‘That’ll be forty three
pounds then.’ Lucy started ladling pound coins out of her pocket.
She gave an apologetic smile.